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Great Basin

The Great Basin is a geographic area between the Sierra Nevada mountains on the west, the Rocky Mountains on the East, the Snake River on the North and the Sonoran/Mojave Deserts to the south. About 95% of the state of Nevada is in the Great Basin. About half of Utah falls within the Great Basin, as do small parts of California, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. The defining attribute of the Great Basin is that precipitation falls within it’s watershed and never reaches an ocean. It drains to the salty basins and lakes of the interior Intermountain West where it eventually seeps into the ground or evaporates. All water drains internally. (Excerpted from Great Basin Seed).

For its first 150 miles in the United States, the Columbia forms the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam. The river then bends west, south, and east through central Washington, turns south and then west, and forms the border between Oregon and Washington to the Pacific Ocean. The mouth of the river is about 10 miles west of Astoria, Oregon. The total length of the river is about 1,243 miles. The drainage basin covers 259,000 square miles, and drains portions of seven states and British Columbia, and covers three degrees of latitude and nine degrees of longitude. 

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The Columbia mainstem has many large and small tributaries, including the Snake (1,078 miles), Kootenay (485 miles), Deschutes (252 miles), Yakima (214 miles), and Willamette (187 miles).

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From its headwaters to its mouth, the river drops steadily at a rate of about two feet per mile, and most of its course is through rock-walled canyons, emptying an annual average of 192 million acre-feet into the Pacific; much of its volume originates in its middle and upper reaches. The combination of high volume and stable canyons made the Columbia an ideal hydropower river. Today there are 14 dams on the mainstem Columbia, beginning with Bonneville at river mile 146 and ending with Mica at river mile 1,018. In addition, there are more than 450 dams throughout the basin. Dams on the Columbia and its major tributaries produce half of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. 

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Map of the HUC 6 watershed sub-basins in the Great Basin that were used for this analysis. Click on the polygons to obtain information about listed species by taxa in each HUC 6 watershed (as of 23 January 2025). Or click here to open the map online.

The following is a summary of the listed species and critical habitats found in the Great Basin. Click on the blocks below to obtain more detailed information about the listed species and critical habitat in each HUC 6 (as of 23 January 2025).

The following is a summary of the listed species and critical habitats by taxa in the Great Basin.

Amphibians

Sierra Nevada yellow legged frog
  1. Dixie Valley Toad (Anaxyrus williamsi) (E) (proposed CH)

  2. Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged Frog (Rana sierrae) (E) (CH

  3. Yosemite Toad (Anaxyrus canorus) (T) (CH

Conifers and Cyads

Whitebark pine tree

Photo credit: Jen Hooke, NPS​

   1. Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) (T) 

Flowering Plants

usfws-ute-ladies-tresses-medium.jpeg

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  1. Autumn Buttercup (Ranunculus aestivalis) (E) 

  2. Clay Phacelia (Phacelia argillacea) (E) 

  3. Dwarf Bear-poppy (Arctomecon humilis) (E) 

  4. Fish Slough Milk-vetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. piscinensis) (T) 

  5. Heliotrope Milk-vetch (Astragalus montii) (T) 

  6. Last Chance Townsendia (Townsendia aprica) (T) 

  7. Maguire Primrose (Primula maguirei) (T) 

  8. Spring-loving Centaury (Centaurium namophilum) (T) 

  9. Steamboat Buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium var. williamsiae) (E) 

  10. Tiehm's Buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii) (E) (CH

  11. Ute Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis) (T) 

  12. ​Webber's Ivesia (Ivesia webberi) (T) (CH

Mammals

Wolverine

Photo credit: National Park Service
 

  1. Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) (T) (CH

  2. Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) (T) 

  3. North American Wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus) (T) 

  4. Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae) (E) (CH

  5. Sierra Nevada Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes necator) (E) 

  6. Utah Prairie Dog (Cynomys parvidens) (T) 

Reptiles

Western pond turtle
  1. Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) (T) (CH

  2. Northwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) (Proposed T) 

Birds

Yellow-billed cuckoo
  1. ​​​​California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) (EXPE) (proposed CH)

  2. California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) (Proposed T) 

  3. Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) (Proposed T) (proposed CH

  4. Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) (T) (CH

  5. Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) (E) 

  6. Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) (T) 

  7. Yuma Ridgway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis) (E) 

Fishes

Bull trout
  1. Big Spring Spinedace (Lepidomeda mollispinis pratensis) (T) 

  2. Bonytail (Gila elegans) (E) 

  3. Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) (T) 

  4. Clover Valley Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus oligoporus) (E) 

  5. Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) (E) 

  6. Cui-ui (Chasmistes cujus) (E) 

  7. Desert Dace (Eremichthys acros) (T) (CH

  8. Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) (E) 

  9. Hiko White River Springfish (Crenichthys baileyi grandis) (E) 

  10. Humpback Chub (Gila cypha) (T) 

  11. Independence Valley Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus lethoporus) (E) 

  12. June Sucker (Chasmistes liorus) (T) (CH

  13. Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi) (T) 

  14. Moapa Dace (Moapa coriacea) (E) 

  15. Mohave Tui Chub (Gila bicolor spp. mohavensis) (E) 

  16. Pahranagat Roundtail Chub (Gila robusta jordani) (E) 

  17. Pahrump Poolfish (Empetrichthys latos) (E) 

  18. Paiute Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii seleniris) (T) 

  19. Railroad Valley Springfish (Crenichthys nevadae) (T) (CH

  20. ​Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) (E) 

  21. ​White River Spinedace (Lepidomeda albivallis​) (E) 

  22. White River Springfish (Crenichthys baileyi baileyi) (E) 

Insects

Monarch butterfly

Photo credit: Thomas Dunkerton Neal-Smith NWR, Thomas Dunkerton/USFWS 
 

  1. Carson Wandering Skipper (Pseudocopaeodes eunus obscurus) (E) 

  2. Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) (C) 

  3. ​Mount Charleston Blue Butterfly (Icaricia (Plebejus) shasta) (E) (CH

Snails

Bruneau hot springsnail

​Photo credit: Bruneau Hot Springsnail, USFWS

  1. Bruneau Hot Springsnail (Pyrgulopsis bruneauensis) (E) 

Lead USFWS Offices in the Great Basin

Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office

1387 South Vinnell Way, Suite 368

Boise, ID 83709-1657

(208) 378-5243

IFWO@fws.gov

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Reno Fish and Wildlife Office
1340 Financial Boulevard, Suite 234
Reno, NV 89502-7147
(775) 861-6300

RFWOmail@fws.gov

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Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office

334 Parsley Boulevard

Cheyenne, WY 82007-4178

(307) 772-2374

WyomingES@fws.gov

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Utah Ecological Services Field Office

2369 West Orton Circle, Suite 50
West Valley City, UT 84119-7603

(801) 975-3330

utahfieldoffice_esa@fws.gov

State Agency Leads for a Dreissenid Response
in the Great Basin

Wyoming

Joshua Leonard
Wyoming Game and Fish Department

joshua.leonard@wyo.gov, (307) 343-5533

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Oregon

Keith DeHart
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Keith.B.DEHART@odfw.oregon.gov, (541) 962-5998

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Idaho

Nicholas Zurfluh
Idaho State Department of Agriculture

Nicholas.Zurfluh@isda.idaho.gov, (208) 334-2840

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Nevada

Kevin Netcher

Nevada Department of Wildlife

kevin.netcher@ndow.org, (775) 777-2333

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California

Martha Volkoff
California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Martha.Volkoff@wildlife.ca.gov, (916) 651-8658

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Utah

Bruce Johnson

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

brucejohnson@utah.gov, (385) 228-3066

© 2024 Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

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